Modern electronic and mechanical systems, such as aircraft or other vehicle systems, are becoming increasingly complex. Health management systems are often used to monitor various health characteristics of vehicle systems. Several factors contribute to the evolution of the health states. These factors include damage accumulation, interaction between components in the system, deviation from design characteristics, and the influence of continuous or discrete events. These aspects can be modeled and evaluated using prognostic monitors, which are configured to predict faults in the vehicle system.
In light of the above, it is becomingly increasingly desirable to monitor the status of vehicles, and more specifically the various mechanical components in a vehicle. One potentially major drawback associated with this is the increasing of numbers and lengths of wires needed to monitor more and more components. One of the proposed solutions to address this drawback is to use power line communications (PLC) technology for mechanical component data monitoring. Unfortunately, the PLC technology solutions to-date are not efficiently conducive, from a weight standpoint, to monitoring the status of multiple mechanical components.
Hence, there is a need for a PLC based vehicle monitoring system that is weight efficient for vehicles, such as aircraft. The present invention addresses at least this need.